I currently serve as Chairman of JetBlue Airways. I’m also the Founding Partner of Peterson Partners and have a long history of growth capital investments in a variety of industries. I have sponsored 10 funds and have invested in hundreds of deals. I have been CEO at Trammell Crow, founded five companies, and sit on the Board of Directors for six companies, including JetBlue, Franklin Covey, Integra Partners, and Ladder Capital. I’m also in my 20th year at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where I teach entrepreneurial management, have been married 40 years, and have seven married children and 15 grandkids. I hold an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Miserable Meetings No More

Do you spend your life in meetings? If you do, chances are that many or even most of them are boring, off-point, and too long. In other words, they get in the way of real work.

But don’t take my word for it — many a wise man has weighed in on bad meetings:

“Meetings are indispensible when you don’t want to do anything.” John Kenneth Galbraith

“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” Thomas Sowell

“Meetings move at the speed of the slowest mind in the room.” Dale Dauton

“The world is run by those willing to sit until the end of meetings.” Hugh Park

The good news is you can usually avoid a bogus meeting by answering a few simple questions before you send an invitation. The payoff of doing that is bigger than you expect – improving your meeting culture can transform the work life of everyone on your team, including you.

1. To meet or not to meet?: No matter the business you’re in, your team’s time is valuable, so you should have clear sense of what you expect to get out of calling people together. And if you can’t figure that out, don’t hold the meeting.

If you do, force yourself to begin with a one-sentence statement on what the group needs to do for the session to be successful. Avoid mushy verbs like “consider”, “assess”, “inform” or “evaluate.” What you want to do is “decide,” “plan” or “choose” — outcomes that mean action and follow-up assignments.

At the end of the meeting, take a minute to summarize what you’ve accomplished in terms of actions and decisions. This will force everyone to think about whether the meeting’s original objective has been met, and to give participants a sense of closure.

At jetBlue, our own version of this came from Board member General Stanley A. McChrystal, who asked that we hold a 15-minute executive session prior to each board meeting. It’s a chance for each Director to share what he or she is looking to get out of the board meeting, so we can be sure to cover that topic or move it to a follow-up. This keeps the meeting focused and intentional.

2. Keep it lean: Working meetings shouldn’t have “audience members” who aren’t participating. Large working meetings are rarely productive, so invite the smallest group that is necessary to achieve the goal of the meeting. And, make sure everyone participates – even if you have to “cold call” them to express an opinion. The energy and productivity of meetings generally expand geometrically with broad and active participation.

3. Run a tight ship: Make sure everyone knows the rules, including for confidentiality and conflict resolution. Keep the number of items you pass out to a minimum, and see that they’re formatted consistently and distributed in the same way at the same time. Get participants to speak in headlines so they don’t bury the lead or meander when they talk. Keep to the schedule: Everyone will appreciate a leader who drives the discussion forward.

4. Early is better: Hold meetings early enough in the day that people can do immediate follow-ups if necessary. End-of-day meetings or just-before-holiday meetings are rarely as productive as those held early in the week and in the morning.

Keep in mind Herbert Hoover’s test for a good meeting: “When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it’s been a lousy meeting.”

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